Matching Pieces
by I Took the One Less Travelled
Summary: Ginny and Tom are matching pieces, two parts of a whole-according to him. According to her, Tom is nothing but a childhood friend turned nightmare. And Harry is her Happily Ever After. Post HBP, canon compliant OneShot.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the basic plot. Any recognizable characters, lyrics, quotes, objects, fictional events, locations, and trademarked products belong to their respective owners. **

**This is just a short OneShot about Ginny and Tom. Takes place on the train home from Hogwarts after Dumbledore's funeral in book six. Ginny/Tom, Ginny/Harry.**

"If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted….I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her dark secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of_ my_ secrets, to start pouring a little of _my _soul back into _her…._" (Rowling, Chamber of Secrets 310).

Lord Voldemort was the root of all evil. The majority of the Wizarding World agreed with that fact, including his followers. Ginny Weasley, a fifth year Gryffindor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry also agreed with that.

Tom Riddle; however, had never been more than a very good friend to a scared eleven year old girl. Ginny's fingers traced an untenable pattern on the fog of the window and stared out the bared rain. It was dark and stormy, unusual for the particular time of year, but appropriate for everyone's collective mood.

The Headmaster was dead. Albus Dumbledore was dead, they were going home from Hogwarts a month early because of it. Ginny hadn't spoken a word for the entire trip. Neville and Luna, sitting across the compartment from her, were equally silent. Dumbledore was dead. There was no need to make idle conversation.

With the empty silence that enveloped the world around them, the echoing sound of rain drops _pitter-pattering_ on the roof of the train, Ginny found herself thinking back to other things. Different times, when the world was simple, and Lord Voldemort was simply a defeated nightmare and Tom Riddle was a nice young memory in a diary that was her closest friend.

Sometimes, when she was feeling especially alone, she heard his voice whispering to her, talking to her. And sometimes, under the cover of the dark of the night, she talked back.

_"Ginevra,"_ he whispered now, taking advantage of the crushing silence. _"Please, Ginevra, talk to me."_ He would always be the only person besides her Auntie Muriel that used her full given name.

"No," she whispered, too low for Luna and Neville to hear. "No, he's not real, not there. He's a figment of your imagination. _No_."

She pressed her cheek to the cold glass and thought about Harry instead. Thoughts of Harry always drove Tom away. She thought of those piercing forever green eyes, his tousled dark hair that desperately needed a brush. Thought of how much her family loved him, how they were going to get married one day. Didn't matter that he had had to break up with her so that he could go off on his harebrained, Dumbledore induced mission. Didn't matter that it had taken him this many years to notice that she was female. Her and Harry were Happily Ever After. Forever.

_"Really, Ginevra? Really?" _Tom sounded ready to heave over her cotton-candy-sweet thoughts regarding Harry. _"Why do you want _him_?"_

_ "Because he's not _you_," _Ginny hissed back before she could stop herself. Since she was going to hell anyway, she decided to continue to beat Tom's ego into the ground. _"He is your every opposite, your antithesis. He is everything that you could never be, and even if I wasn't in love with him, I would forever love him just for that."_

_"You're in love with someone simply because he is my opposite? That seems rather silly of you, Ginevra. In fact, if anything, you are simply deeply in hate towards me, and you truly feel nothing towards him in particular."_

_ "Bastard! I love him because he is all that is good and honourable in the world!" _

Tom leaves, perhaps because she has succeeded in banishing him, and perhaps because he is just sickened by the thought of Harry. Ginny can never really tell.

Ginny shook her head. "Luna," she said huskily, when they are pulling up at King's Cross station, vocal chords rubbing together from what felt like years of lack of use, but was really two or three hours at most.

"Gin?" Luna looked towards her questioningly as Neville hauled all three of their trunks down from the overhead carriage without being asked.

"Just, be careful this summer, huh Luna? Nev?"

They agreed with her, and made her promise the same before they all hugged (they had never been the huggy type of friends before, but now that Dumbledore is dead, it seems like they might not have much time left to hug) and got off the train, connecting to their respective families and saying goodbye.

Even though Tom Riddle constantly insists that Ginny is his creature, is just like him, she knows that today, she's won. She's beat him. Ginny Weasley is nothing like Tom Marvalo Riddle. Ginny Weasley can live and laugh and love. Even though he poured pieces of his soul into her, and even though what he did to her will never really leave her, Ginny knows that she's different.


End file.
